For The Sake of Tea
by Nelarun
Summary: Because Mabui did not just go through the escort mission from hell just to lose her tea as soon as she stepped inside Kumo's walls because of one clumsy, oafish, panther! Part Three of the Scroll of Sparks series.


**The Scroll of Sparks  
'For the sake of Tea'  
A Naruto fanfiction by Nelarun  
Naruto © Kishimoto**

Despite being an official member of team-A, Mabui didn't have all that much to do with the Jounin. She was sent to different battlefields, different countries, different missions. She had wondered for a long moment if they were trying to protect her because she was so young, but she put that thought aside very quickly – Mabui had earned her vest – perhaps a little earlier than others and she she didn't truly see herself advancing beyond Chuunin, but it was earned.

Still, on days like this – _mission_s like this one – she wished quite ardently that she didn't have to be anywhere other than with her team. The mission was simple: escort a merchant from Ise – one of Lightning's most prosperous ports – to Kanagawa – one of Tea's smallest ports. From Kanagawa she was to escort him to Ronshou Village high in the hills of Tea. This was an easy C-rank, she'd been given it solo and had thought it a great honour until she'd actually started.

Due to unforeseeable circumstances, the merchant had been held up so the ship wasn't able to take them for an extra week due to unseasonal storms. Sailors are superstitious – worse than Shinobi! – and they saw this as an ill omen. Still the Captain set sail when the weather cleared up. Unfortunately two days in, another storm sprung up and they had to make port at a known pirates den. Mabui, who had been less than welcomed by the crew (owing to the unforgivable crime of being a woman) was forced to go negotiate a berth fee. (They had laughed when they pushed her in, but she scoffed, twisted and landed lightly on the water.) After having to prove herself in a brawl, mentally thanking B-sama's crazy brawler-like-taijutsu-style, and fending off lewd propositions she returned to the ship, thrust the docking slip into the Captain's hands and retreated to the mast to tend to her wounds and watch the storm raging outside of the cove.

After the storm passed, they continued on their way and finally made Tea… well they would have if pirates hadn't followed them and decided that one merchant vessel with standard defences, full hold and a tiny Chuunin was easy pickings. To be fair they could see Tea… Well there was a smudge on the horizon and _that_ smudge was Tea…

Anyway, back to Mabui.

So pirates think they're far cleverer than what they actually are. Mabui had that sort of mind that would be terrifying when she grew up, but for now she was merely scary. And by merely… well when the Captain shouted at her for having a stupid plan she glared at him and spent two full minutes questioning his parentage, mental acuity and proceeded to cheerfully inform him of what she would do to him if he ever spoke to her like that again. By the end of it the Captain – two parts terrified, one part stunned that she hadn't cursed even mildly, one part relieved that she hadn't mentioned his now void bladder – was scrambling to obey. (A-sama would be so proud of her.)

By the time they made port of Kanagawa and the Merchant was fully offloaded and ready, it was almost midnight. Mabui looking down at her rapidly dwindling supply of mon and resigned herself to a cold night in the dark.

Dawn saw them moving into the hills and when they finally arrived at the village the Merchant had told her that she was the worst escort he had ever had (and ooooo she was _tempted_ to slip a shiv between his ribs and leave him to drown in his own fluids) so when she walked into the tea ship and set down all her ryo and asked for one hundred grams of her favourite tea she almost wept when the merchant informed her that she was short by about four thousand ryo. When her eyes narrowed and she took in a shuddering breath he hurried to fill a bag for her with the exact amount of tea she had wanted and hurriedly told her that the excess didn't matter. She thanked him, promptly burst into tears of happiness – tears the merchant had been trying to avoid – took the tea and cradled it to her before she turned and darted away.

She should have known the good luck she had getting home wouldn't last, and so the entire Kumo market district was staring at the Chuunin as she watched her precious, rare and expensive tea fall to the ground, the leaves crushed and burned under the paw of the black panther.

The Raikage saw the little Chuunin scowling at a chagrinned looking Darui who was trying to escape but wasn't getting very far. "Do you have any idea what I had to go through to get this?"  
"It's just tea," Darui mumbled.  
"'Just tea?' _Just tea_! Do you have any idea how much that tea costs? Only one region on the entire Continent grows this tea!" Darui was not ashamed to admit (but never would) that the step he took away from the pint-sized Chuunin was actually one of fear. "It took me four months to save and scavenge enough for one hundred grams! I had to take the boat with the most stupidly superstitious sailors, fight off pirates, go back to the sailors, fight the pirates again, deal with lousy port authorities then the client from hell! The only good thing about the mission that region had my tea and now-"  
"Mabui-chan-"  
"Shut up, Darui! Shut up! I want my tea and I want you to suffer and I _want my tea!_" Her chakra flared and Darui shivered, holding up his hands in the attempt to placate the dangerously hysterical girl.  
"Mab-"  
"Pain!"  
"But-"  
"Die!"

Darui almost sulked the entire way to tea, Mabui almost frog marching him into the store… E-sama hadn't even tried to listen to him and allowed them to go back to Tea, telling Darui to fix his own damn problems – gesturing vaguely towards Mabui who was half hiding behind B and still glaring at him. It had been a long while since E had seen any put Darui so swiftly in his place that E was feeling most indulgent towards the little Chuunin.

Speaking of said Chuunin… Mabui was bouncing in place as the tea merchant weighed out the rolled leaves and bagged it up. Mabui took it reverently, glared suspiciously at Darui and turned to A, informing him that she would wait outside. A grunted and turned to Darui. "Pay the gentleman."  
"Sure, Boss." Darui cringed as three months' pay disappeared over such a trifling amount of tea. Still… the way Mabui cradled the tea to her was almost… adorable.

* * *

**A/N: This is the first POSTED oneshot in my Scroll of Sparks series which follows a bunch of Kumo-nin around. The oneshot are, for the most part, canonical just from Kumo's point of view. This is set BEFORE The Kumo incident in Konoha and in my mind Mabui is about twelve years old. I'm posting out of order because I'm actually struggling with the first oneshot when A get the young Chuunin on his apathetic team. The inspiration came about when I FINALLY had enough money for Wu-lang tea from the tea store in town ($32/100gm) and as I was leaving the store (yes, still cradling the tea) I nearly lost it when a kid escaped from his parent and barrelled into me. I was terrified that I'd lose the tea but I didn't... then the walk home all I could think about was Mabui losing tea due to Darui and tada. **


End file.
